Feedback Form
Home Features Mastermind Forums About Advertise Blog Network Contact Be An Author

How to Localize your Website

How to Localize your Website

There are many websites around who offer local or regional services. Yours may be one of them. When someone uses a search engine to find someone offering products or services similar to yours, will they find you? Let’s explore the concept of localizing your website.

What is Localizing your Website? Localizing means optimizing your website for your specific locale and surrounding communities or area. Part of this optimization is to weave your locales into your website content. This is a little tricky since it can appear unnatural if you use your locale in your content too many times in succession or if your local reference is our of place (text too large, for example). Some companies identify their local in very large letters using very large header h1 and h2 tags. This can be viewed as a good thing by search engine, but it sure looks tacky.

You have to be creative about how you use your locale names within your website. Here are the techniques you can use to make your website more “localized.

Identify your Locales. The first thing you should do is get a map or a listing of every town that is near you and out to the edge of your service area. You should include even the smallest communities. For Central Ohio, there are close to 50 small communities that can be part of a regional locale.

Make your Primary Focus your Larger Locale. Say you live in a small suburb at the edge of a major city. In the case of Columbus, Ohio, you may be based in a suburb, Hilliard, Ohio, but your customers may come from all over Central Ohio. It is better to focus on Columbus, Ohio since that is what most people in the area will enter when doing a search. You can make Hilliard, Ohio come out is your general content areas.

Use your Locales Well. You can make mention of your primary locale on your page Title line, in your page comments Alt and Title tags, file names, and of course, occasionally as part of your main content. Remember that h1, h2, and b tags can generate higher search engine points because those tags scream “this is important because it is bolded text.” Try not to use a locale reference more than about 3-5% of the time, in terms of overall page content. There is a very useful utility on the Website Optimization Services page of my website that will analyze all words on a given page and generate a percentage breakdown report as to how many times a word is used on a given page.

Put your Regional Locales Down in the “Fine Print.” This is a great technique that I use quite regularly. I get my list of 50-some local communities and, way down in the footer area of the page, say something like, :Proudly serving these fine Central Ohio communities” and then I list nearly every community in Central Ohio in this footer area. This text is way off the main body of the page, so it doesn’t reflect negatively on your website. Even if search engines don’t value this area of your web page they will still see it and, since other are not doing this, you stand a great chance of moving up in the rankings.

I have a client who added these very small towns to the bottom of his web pages and he recently received some new business because someone in one of these small towns queried their small town in Google. This worked because it is a somewhat unique town name and also because no one else is coding their web pages with those same small towns listed on the web page.

If you would like to see some examples, get in contact with me via my website and I will forward some actual client links and additional information as to how well it works for them. It’s time to localize your website!





How to Localize your Website - To learn more about this author, visit Bill Golden's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

Article Feedback
 Article Feedback No article feedback found.
  Leave Your Feedback
article feedback

Article Feedback
Jeff Foster
WebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas.  We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing
- Visit Jeff Foster's Website

Casey Gollan
Casey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website

Jay Kubassek
(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek)  In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.

 

As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)

 

Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. 

 

Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper.  Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website


To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us.

About The Author


Bill Golden
(Visit Bill's Website) Bill Golden, founder of Golden Web Design Services, has grown up with technology since the early 1980s. As the first “PC Guru” for a US Midwest Fortune 500 company, he directed a variety of corporate development initiatives over a 17 year period. Bill then managed a technical training company before starting his own consulting practice in 2001, specializing in website development, marketing, and search engine optimization. If you are interested in learning more about how Bill can help improve your website rankings, you can reach him at http://www.goldenwebs.biz.

Bill Golden is a Gold author on EvanCarmichael.com
About The Author

View Author Blog
Technical Support - Golden Web Design Services offers a variety of ways to reach us, should you have a question or need some type of technical support. We work some crazy hours, so if you need to chat and see that we are online, give us a yell!
Technical Support
View Author Blog

View Author Video
View Author Video

Free Downloads


Bill Golden's

Complete
List Of
SEO
Articles

Name
Email
If you enjoyed this article, get Bill Golden's Complete List of SEO Articles For FREE!

More Bill Golden
Why Your Website Needs a Sitemap
Use Title Tags to Educate and Stimulate
Protect Your Website Email Address
Why is Pagespecific Search Engine Optimization Important
Keyword Overload can Kill a Web Page
Why Reciprocal Linking is a SoSo Idea
How to Train Search Engines to Visit Your Website Often
Why Page Titles are Critically Important to you Website
Why Crosslinking Your Website is a Great Idea
How do You Track Your Website Keywords
Free Downloads


 
 
 


Evan Elite Authors
John Alexander  
Cheryl Matthynssens  
John Power  
Evan Elite Authors

Become An Author
Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details.
Become An Author

Evan's Latest Video
Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media
Evan's Latest Video

Business Opportunities
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"

How to Start An Online Business

Click Here To Learn More
Business Opportunities



Evan's Newsletter
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Evan`s Newsletter

Free Downloads
Salesperson Selection Icon Salesperson Selection
Networking Impacts Income Icon Networking Impacts Income
Referral Networking Solution Icon Referral Networking Solution
Managing Generations Icon Managing Generations
Business Plan Sample Icon Business Plan Sample
Free Downloads - Complete List

Entrepreneur Tools and Guides
Guide To ERP Software / Business Management Software
Guide To ERP Software
Business Management Software
 
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
 
Entrepreneur Tools and Guides

SEO For Africa
SEO For Africa
Frida Anani Lomé, Togo,
Frida Anani
Lomé, Togo
SEO For Africa

If I Were A Startup...
Catherine Daw, > $4 Mil in revenues
Catherine Daw
> $4 Mil in revenues
Kerry Shapansky, $2.0 to $51 Mil in 5 years
Kerry Shapansky
$2.0 to $51 Mil in 5 years
If I Were A Startup... - Complete List

Famous Entrepreneurs
Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks
Steven Spielberg
DreamWorks
J.P. Morgan, JP Morgan
J.P. Morgan
JP Morgan
Famous Entrepreneurs - Complete List

Entrepreneur Advice
David Allen, Getting Things Done
David Allen
Getting Things Done
Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup
Jack Canfield
Chicken Soup
Entrepreneur Advice - Complete List

Popular Articles
(Premium Authors)

     Targeted Selection makes Hiring Much Easier
By John M. Beane
     Conducting an Exit Interview
By John M. Beane
     Why are Employees defensive about their performance?
By John M. Beane

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

More Evan Carmichael
More Information